CANCUN RIP-OFF AGAIN.....

The last time that I blogged about Cancun, Mexico, I wrote about how much we got ripped off. Well, I had to go back down there again for a few days, and this experience was no different! Only this time it wasn't the locals that ripped us off. We felt that it was the resort itself! For those of you reading this and saying, "Oh, poor Tim! He got to go to Mexico!" Trust me, you were better off here. First the weather ruined our 5 days there because it poured 3 out of the 5 days; leaving us nothing to do but stay inside the resort and drink, and for someone like me who doesn't drink....Not fun!

Anyway, let's start at the beginning! So, we arrived in Cancun, and looked for our shuttle bus that was to transfer us from the airport to the hotel, which we paid for (roundtrip) in advance. I'll remind you about that later. We finally find our shuttle and get to our destination, Cancun Palace in the Hotel Zone. It looked nice from the outside, but you can tell there were renovations being done. Our luggage was taken from the bus and we were given a ticket and told that our luggage will be waiting in our room. When we went through the paperwork at the front desk, we were told that our room wouldn't be ready for an hour. What? So, then a concierge grabbed us, sat us down, and asked us what we like to do. At first, I thought she was trying to hook us up with excursions while we were there. Nope! First she explained that since we were there for 4 nights, we were allotted $750 in Resort credits to use towards excursions, spa, shopping, or a romantic lobster dinner. Then she proceeded to bully us into making an appointment to meet her for breakfast, so she can talk to us about vacation packages. Sound familiar? I told her we already owned a timeshare, and weren't interested, but she was not taking no for an answer. 

After finally saying yes to the begging sales rep, we asked about our room and were told another half hour. Okay, we're off to a bad start now, and New York came out of me as I got loud with the front desk guy. I just wanted to go up to our room and rest. We were already annoyed with the sales pitch we received. I walked away before I did anything stupid. A half-hour later, we finally got our room key and would you believe it? They gave us room "666"! Yup! Thank you, Cancun Palace! I have to say though; the room was immaculate with a great view and a Jacuzzi right next to the bed in front of the flat screen TV. So, they seemed to have made up for the hour and a half wait for our room. While we waited for our luggage to arrive, we dozed off for a couple hours only to realize that our luggage had never come. I went down to the bell hops and they told me it was delivered. I told them that it wasn't and they asked if I was sure. I'm ready to kill now, but I remained calm and said that I was sure! One of them followed me up to the room, so I can show them. Our suitcase was lost on the resort somewhere! Great! All of the bell hops went on a search of every room in the resort. We know because we heard the walkie talkies going off like crazy. After about an hour search, we finally got our luggage! Thank God we had a lock on it! They found it in another room 3 floors below us. Not off to a good start!

As the week went on, we dealt with nasty cooks in the restaurants, thin walls where you can hear kids screaming at 7 am, and drunken kids yelling and puking in the hallway in the middle of the night. We got no sleep whatsoever. When we did want to hang out at one of the resort bars at night, there was only one and it was filled with 18 year old kids, which kind of made it feel like a high school dance. How can an all-inclusive not have a bar open for the adults? The amenities at Cancun Palace were horrible. Oh, by the way, their spas were set up in hotel room on the third floor. Talk about makeshift! We heard the reason for all this temporary stuff was because Cancun Palace was becoming the Hard Rock Hotel in August. Well, that explains a lot! They didn't care anymore and it seemed like the workers were pretty much mailing it in. Unfortunately, for us, we were there during the transition stage! 

Before I finish blowing off steam about our miserable stay at Cancun Palace, I have to tell you about what we spent our $750 Resort credits on. We took an excursion to the other Mayan ruins that we missed last time called Tulum. What a rip-off that was! Everywhere we turned they were trying to get money from us there. The good thing about the trip was that we were able to get off the resort. Other than that Chichen Itza was way better! Then we used the remaining credits on the romantic lobster dinner for two, which only turned out to be a lobster tail and a few shrimp. What a letdown! 

On the day that we left, we scheduled a 6:30 pickup, which we paid for in advance, but were late for because there was one front desk person helping another couple checking out, so the transfer to the airport left without us. We were told that they waited 10 minutes for us, so they left. Last I checked, we paid in advance for the service, so they needed to wait as long as it took us, right? Well, they didn't see it that way, and we were forced to take a taxi that we needed to pay for again. Shouldn't the resort have picked up the tab on that since we already paid through them for a roundtrip to and from the resort? This was unbelievable! Needless, to say, we did get one day of sun in. The event we were there for was amazing! If you ask me if I will be going to Cancun ever again? I will have to answer with a big fat NO! There's so much more to tell, but I feel like I've already wasted your time rambling about this crappy resort! It doesn't matter to them, though! Come August, they're a brand new resort!